By Francesca Merlo – Belém, Brazil
There are many warnings emerging from COP30 this year. Cardinal Pablo Virglio David, Bishop of Kaloocan in the Philippines, was given one from a complete stranger, as he attended an event at the UN’s Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil. “I met a man from the Oceanographic Pavilion”, he explains. “He asked me if I am from the Philippines, and when I told him I was, he replied ‘then you’re the first victims of climate change'”.
The man explained how just one degree of temperature rise in the Pacific Ocean could wipe out all coral reefs. Cardinal David is aware of this reality, but hopes that he, along with men like the one from the Oceanographic Pavilion, will help others to understand, too. “A lot of foreigners come to our beaches and see white sand,” Cardinal David tells Vatican News, “But they don’t realise that the white sand that they are stepping on is the remnants of the carcasses of the dead corals that have been bleached by global warming”. It looks nice, but he notes, “they’re stepping on something that is dead”.
There are so many things that people don’t realise about the Philippines, though, a country that is no stranger to climate disasters.
The devastating effects of Climate Change
“Just a few weeks ago, after the installation of the new Archbishop of Cebu, a massive earthquake struck the northern part of the island. Days later, a powerful typhoon followed the same path.” The Filipino cardinal recalls how his own cousin’s family had to be rescued from their rooftop as floodwaters rose in the night. “They didn’t even have time to save anything. The water reached the second floor, so they had to make a hole in the roof and wait to be rescued.”There is urgency in his story. “The typhoons are getting stronger, more devastating, and carrying much more rain. They dump it within hours, causing catastrophe,” he says.
But natural disasters, he adds, are compounded by human negligence. “Much of the flooding was caused by poorly constructed flood control systems – ghost projects built without feasibility studies, the result of corruption.” Cardinal David explains that billions of pesos have been misused in the name of flood prevention, funds that could have gone to education, healthcare, or social welfare. “We are doubly victims,” he says, “victims of the climate crisis, and victims of poor governance that doesn’t know how to respond properly.”
Reflecting on the Summit, Cardinal David says, “It’s almost like Pentecost. We come from various countries all over the world. I didn’t realise how seriously people are taking COP30 – just being there among the nations was amazing.” For Cardinal David, that alone is a huge source of consolation: “It convinced me that there are people who truly care about our common home, about the Earth.”
At a panel organised by Caritas Internationalis, Cardinal David spoke on behalf of the people of the Philippines, along with survivors of cyclones in his home country, sharing the reality behind the idyllic tourist destination.
Before leaving the Philippines, Cardinal David met with bishops from the Mindanao-Sulu region, who brought forward a tangible idea: the ‘Earth Tariff’. “It’s a proposal that nations agree to impose a tariff not just on pollution, but on extraction itself – on every barrel of fossil fuel taken from the Earth,” he explains. “That money could then be used by the United Nations to fund grants for Indigenous communities to regenerate forests, coral reefs, and ecosystems.” By starting at the root – the point of extraction – he says, “we can already discourage exploitation”.
“The people least responsible for global warming suffer the most,” he says. “But conversion is still possible. If we listen – truly listen – to one another and to the cry of the Earth, there is still hope”.
Call to conversion
The Cardinal’s message at COP30 is not one of condemnation but of conversion: “I’m not here to point fingers”, he says. “I’m here to say: please, for heaven’s sake, let us sit down together and engage in an examination of conscience”. Drawing from Catholic tradition, he outlines what he calls the four elements of reconciliation – confession, contrition, penance, and forgiveness – applying them to humanity’s relationship with the environment.
“Confession means admitting our failures – what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do for the environment”, he explains. “Contrition is remorse, the ability to say, ‘I’m sorry for the misery we’ve caused.’ Penance is shown through acts of reparation – real steps to make amends. And forgiveness – both given and sought – completes the process”.
If these four elements take root, he believes, they will be the surest signs of what the late Pope Francis has called ecological conversion.
“It’s never too late”, Cardinal David concludes. “We can still rescue our common home”. – Vatican News
